Early Risers.

[Smiffy2]

I used to teach at a school in Putney which was close by the Green Man pub (very handy) and they had dray deliveries up to the end. Loved to see the kids patting the dray horses. The very sweaty dray horses that had just pulled a couple of tons up Putney Hill.

 

Then smelling their hands...

 

 

I do miss Young's Brewery...

[DaveF]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

When was the last horse-dray retired in the UK, I wonder?

 

 

 

Shipstones (now long gone) in Nottingham delivered to a lot of the pubs near the brewery using horse drawn drays well into the 1960s.

 

The village coalman when we lived in East Leake 1957 to 1960 delivered using a horse and cart.

 

In Nottingham, again up to 1965, I can remember the local nuseryman delivering plants by horse and cart.

 

Earlier than that I can remember rag and bone men with their horses and carts - it must have been in the early/mid 1950s.

 

I can also remember real gas street lamps and houses being converted from DC mains electricity to AC  in Nottingham in the 1960s.  We had Rediffusion wired radio too - and the roads were mended with the help of real steam rollers.  Now and then there were even steam lorries up to about 1964, though very rare.  In the late 50s I saw fields being ploughed using steam engines - now only seen from time to time at steam events.

 

I must be getting old.

 

David

[Ozexpatriate]

51 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

Young's Brewery

Wadworth's Brewery in Devizes are still using them:

Hook Norton Brewery in Banbury:

And Samuel Smith's in Tadcaster:

Bob, are these horses the only way these beers are transported at/from the brewery or are these part of the experience for visitors or marketing?

 

The household cavalry still rides horses too, but they wouldn't likely charge a foreign enemy on them.

 

21 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Brewery deliveries by horse are more advertising than practicality. Commercial use of horses and carts for just delivery?  Don't know 

The Budweiser (AB-InBev) Clydesdales are very much this way - advertising, parades, etc.

 

Edited January 19 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, grandadbob said:

 Young's Brewery who used to be in Wandsworth retired their horses in 1997:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/brewer-s-dray-horses-fall-victim-to-road-rage-1256697.html

 

However it seems that Wadworth's Brewery in Devizes are still using them:

 

https://www.wadworth.co.uk/about/the-wadworth-shires

 

Also the Hook Norton Brewery in Banbury:

 

https://www.hooky.co.uk/hooky-shire-horses/https://samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/shire-horses/

 

And Samuel Smith's in Tadcaster:

 

https://samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk/shire-horses/

 

 

 

 

 

Penfolds Stationers used to use a horse and cart to deliver stock to their  inner Sydney shops daily up until November 2005.

 

Edited January 19 by monkeysarefun

[Andy Hayter]

28 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Brewery deliveries by horse are more advertising than practicality. Commercial use of horses and carts for just delivery?  Don't know 

 

 

Probably a bit over 30 40 years ago I was told by a local brewery manager, that for his city centre deliveries the horse and dray were more economical than a lorry.  This was in the days still when there was a pub on perhaps every third or fourth street corner with  this brewery supplying maybe a quarter of them.  

 

Things have probably changed a lot now with smaller pubs having shut or been reborn as independent wine bars, tanning salons or whatever; as well as rationalisation of breweries and subsequent closures.   However if a brewery remains in  city centre and has a reasonable number of local hostelries nearby taking the product, the economics have probably not changed a lot.     

[New Haven Neil]

Vaux brewery (say Vawks not vose) in Sunderland used horse drays in town until Whitbread closed the brewery down in 2000.  Stards.

[Coombe Barton]

Bridlington, September 26, 1984: A carthorse called Royal was due to make its last round delivering coal on September 27, bringing to an end a 100 year old business. 

 

Stephen Nicholls, 49, of Mill Hill, Bridlington, whose family has been delivering fuel by horse and cart since 1870, has sold the business to a Rotherham-based firm, Ian Randall, which said it would deliver the black stuff by lorry instead.

 

Royal ended up having a remarkable career change, as a result of the sale of the business. The ten year old gelding ended up as a wedding carriage horse ferrying brides to church in style, as well as on time.

 

Mr Nicholls humorously commented: “He seems to prefer confetti to the coal dust.”

 

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/end-of-road-for-coal-delivery-by-horse-599469#

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

... What is it that people won’t take the sensible course for vaccinations? Is it because they know better? ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/01/19/covid-enquiry-scotland-on-whatsapp-measles-a-national-health-incident/

 

 

An interesting interpretation of L`homme arme, but the posted recording was naff, with terrible sound distortion.

 

And a modern trumpet and piccolo amongst more appropriate "early" instruments?  The balancing must have been almost impossible, they should have been baffled or even isolated, as the hammered dulcimer and drum were.

 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Doubtless there were many for whom the horse remained a superior alternative to the internal-combustion engine for many years after the turn of the 20th century.

 

Ah, but then again governments didn't dictate that horses would be unavailable for purchase after 1927....

 

I am NOT anti-electric car. I AM anti the governments kneejerk response to climate change being that we must all buy electric cars in the next   few years. It a lazy typical governmental "seen to be doing something" act and is disingenuous by implying that I could trade in my 2 litre diesel tomorrow, buy a Tesla and I'd be able to go on living my same life, doing exactly the same things unaffected, and I'd also be saving the planet, which is nonsense on both counts.

 

If I was to buy a new petrol car tomorrow I would not choose one that had a 5 litre fuel tank that I had to re-fill with an eyedropper, I would personally find that impractical. In the same way, and for the same reasons, I would not get an electric car yet, no matter how hard the government tells me I should.

 

 

Edited January 19 by monkeysarefun

[Mike Bellamy]

Horses are being used in forestry clearance in Wales - from the BBC earlier this week.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czv55v1qy24o

.

[Smiffy2]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Vaux brewery (say Vawks not vose) in Sunderland used horse drays in town until Whitbread closed the brewery down in 2000.  Stards.

Remember them well!

[TheQ]

I can remember the rag and bone man horse and cart in the mid 60's. 

Genuine steam rollers around that time as well.

Our family coal business went over to lorries post ww1, we covered a large area..

 

The Devizes  dray certainly was used on economics till quite recently, but the decline in the number of pubs must be making that more difficult.

 

Iirc the last railway horse was at Newmarket till 1968..

 

Paul Heiney , a TV and radio presenter, ran his 35 acre farm using Suffolk punch horses for everything including ploughing till 2000.

 

The land rover still had a frosty bonnet when I left for the MRC at 18:00, and it was still frosty when I came out at 21:00.

MRC was mostly fighting with a new timer temperature controller for one of the heaters.

Instructions on how to set the running temp and the stand down temp, instructions on how to set the 261 time periods, but......

 

No instructions on how to set the actual  time.

 

Temperature out there now?  It claims to be +1C but I don't believe it cos nothing is melting , in fact the minor roads have now frosted over , requiring careful driving on the way back.

 

Like monkeysarefun, an electric car is impractical and expensive for us at the moment. If I were to buy new tomorrow, it would probably be a diesel.

 

Muggachoccy gone

Good night Awl.

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I'd gone out before I saw your message, but here's the C*&^%$£s bunfight.

 

 

...and some of the guilty on a pootle out.

 

 

That first photo contains some right dodgy looking geezers and the second one is a right rogues gallery. No wonder you have to keep going to different places to eat. Is there anywhere left on the island  that'll let you in?

[New Haven Neil]

1 minute ago, Winslow Boy said:

That first photo contains some right dodgy looking geezers and the second one is a right rogues gallery. No wonder you have to keep going to different places to eat. Is there anywhere left on the island  that'll let you in?

 

Thee isn't anywhere that dares not let us in........

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Brewery deliveries by horse are more advertising than practicality. Commercial use of horses and carts for just delivery?  Don't know 

I was told by my father that horses were still pulling big drays of milk in Carlisle when I was a bairn in 52/53.  The big horse dray was used to fill up the small electric drays.  Apparently the horse knew every stop it had to make as well as the route. 

 

As to Vaux brewery. My very first pint of beer was Vaux gold labeat the tender age of 15 on a school choir outing. 

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, DaveF said:

 

Shipstones (now long gone) in Nottingham delivered to a lot of the pubs near the brewery using horse drawn drays well into the 1960s.

 

The village coalman when we lived in East Leake 1957 to 1960 delivered using a horse and cart.

 

In Nottingham, again up to 1965, I can remember the local nuseryman delivering plants by horse and cart.

 

Earlier than that I can remember rag and bone men with their horses and carts - it must have been in the early/mid 1950s.

 

I can also remember real gas street lamps and houses being converted from DC mains electricity to AC  in Nottingham in the 1960s.  We had Rediffusion wired radio too - and the roads were mended with the help of real steam rollers.  Now and then there were even steam lorries up to about 1964, though very rare.  In the late 50s I saw fields being ploughed using steam engines - now only seen from time to time at steam events.

 

I must be getting old.

 

David

Emerson Park Halt on the Romford-Upminster line was gas lit well into this century.

[Barry O]

10 hours ago, Smiffy2 said:

Remember them well!

My mum and Dad were stewards at Blackhall Officials Club when I was young. They sold Vaux beers. The Scottish bit of Vaux (lorimer & Clarks) brewed an excellent beer.. "Best Scotch". The equivalent one brewed in Sunderland was not as good.

 

When Vaux (and its Sheffield subsidiary "Wards" closed some of the Vaux employees formed a new business to brew and sell the Vaux "Double Maxim" brown ale...

 

Baz

Edited January 20 by Barry O

[Tony_S]

Evening all. 
It was a frosty start to the day. Our food delivery arrived at about 9.30.  It didn’t take too long to,put away. Then I set off to Basildon Hospital for my routine skin scan in the dermatology department. It was pleasantly warm there which is fortunate as the examination requires not a lot of clothing. One spot was circled,with a marker pen and I was sent off to have it photographed. The doctor said it would be removed within a fortnight and later this afternoon I got a telephone call giving me an appointment at the end of the month. It will be at a clinic on Canvey. 
I called in at the tyre dealer in my way home and had the car tracking checked. It was a bit out as I suspected . It was adjusted and feels better now.  The journey home was fairly uneventful, apart from a few cars in the hospital car park travelling up,the down ramp I was about to enter. I think the first car had made an error and the others just followed. There are painted arrows on the floor and overhead signs though.

We went and had a cup of tea at our next door neighbours this afternoon. There was some discussion about local car dealers. My neighbour has got to sort out a new new shark fin aerial for his Lexus. He damaged the old one when reversing into his garage and the door was still going up. I looked at some online advice which suggested that my neighbours idea of patching the cracked cover and putting it back with silicone sealant wasn’t really a good idea. Most of the advice was from the US ,where I suppose the combination of Lexus and powered garage doors is more common.

Tony

Edited January 19 by Tony_S

[Barry O]

When I worked in Bradford there were still horse drawn rag and bone carts.. that was in the 1990s...

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Running a bit late due to sorting out the phone problem. Lunch was late and subsequently so was dinner which was a simple omelette and chips. The foxes have been in the garden knocking everything over but at least they're not digging any holes. 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Mike Bellamy said:

Horses are being used in forestry clearance in Wales - from the BBC earlier this week.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czv55v1qy24o

.

And not just Wales. There are quite a few other sites in the septic isle that use horses. It is because they have a lighter impact on the ground, often going where tracked vehicles can't. The downside is of course they can't heft as well as machines or work for as long.

[Winslow Boy]

45 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I was told by my father that horses were still pulling big drays of milk in Carlisle when I was a bairn in 52/53.  The big horse dray was used to fill up the small electric drays.  Apparently the horse knew every stop it had to make as well as the route. 

 

As to Vaux brewery. My very first pint of beer was Vaux gold labeat the tender age of 15 on a school choir outing. 

 

Jamie

Corruption of the youth and it's been downhill eversince.

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Evening all. 
It was a frosty start to the day. Our food delivery arrived at about 9.30.  It didn’t take too long to,put away. Then I set off to Basildon Hospital for my routine skin scan in the dermatology department. It was pleasantly warm there which is fortunate as the examination requires not a lot of clothing. One spot was circled,with a marker pen and I was sent off to have it photographed. The doctor said it would be removed within a fortnight and later this afternoon I got a telephone call giving me an appointment at the end of the month. It will be at a clinic on Canvey. 
I called in at the tyre dealer in my way home and had the car tracking checked. It was a bit out as I suspected . It was adjusted and feels better now.  The journey home was fairly uneventful, apart from a few cars in the hospital car park travelling up,the down ramp I was about to enter. I think the first car had made an error and the others just followed. There are painted arrows on the floor and overhead signs though.

We went and had a cup of tea at our next door neighbours this afternoon. There was some discussion about local car dealers. My neighbour has got to sort out a new new shark fin aerial for his Lexus. He damaged the old one when reversing into his garage and the door was still going up. I looked at some online advice which suggested that my neighbours idea of patching the cracked cover and putting it back with silicone sealant wasn’t really a good idea. Most of the advice was from the US ,where I suppose the combination of Lexus and powered garage doors is more common.

Tony

My experience of hospital car parks Tony is that they probably couldn't care less whether the were using the wrong ramp. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Barry O said:

When I worked in Bradford there were still horse drawn rag and bone carts.. that was in the 1990s...

 

Baz

I can remember the rag and bone man's cart and horse. He used to ring a bell to let all the housewives know. This would have been late 70's.